Oroville Nature Center welcomes families for fun Saturday

OROVILLE &GT;&GT; The Feather River Nature Center is always a nice, shady stop for families. Saturday the restored bath house within view of Oroville's green bridge offered even more.

The event was Family Fun Day, the first presented by the volunteers who keep the aged bathhouse ready for visitors.

Activities for children included rock painting, planting seeds, a museum treasure hunt and games to teach fire safety.

The children were each given a plain white kite they could decorate with stickers and were encouraged to look around the museum to learn more about the Feather River area.

Juno, a 14-month-old parrot, was a big crowd pleaser on the arm of Michael Hicks. He's not a volunteer at the Nature Center, but usually people are happy when he shows up with the bird for show-and-tell. Juno is too young to talk, Hicks explained to the children, who were naturally trying to help the bird mimic their words.

Another visitor-friendly creature was a box turtle, which seemed like he was willing to come out of his box.

Sisters Kate and Paige Merrill, ages 6 1/2 and 9, had a large group that included their parents and grandmother.

"I love museums," Paige said, echoed by the same sentiment from her younger sister.

The Nature Center is off a driveway at the round-about at Montgomery Avenue, just over the old green bridge. At the end of the driveway, people can take one of many trails or walk a short distance to the water.

A goal of volunteers is to raise money to complete another 1/4-mile trail, explained docent Sue Hees.

Volunteers needed

More volunteers are needed, even people who want to pitch in for half a day once a month, said lead docent Becky Smith. Volunteers are trained to tend the Nature Center's native plants, provide information to visitors and attend fundraising events.

For general information: http://goo.gl/l8GkZH

About the Nature Center

The "bath house" was built in the 1930s, but its use was short-lived. Hees said the structure allowed people to change clothes for swimming.

However, the area flooded a year after completion, and the beach along the water was no longer popular for swimming. In 1996 a big effort was made to clean up the area, which had been overrun by nature and trash, she said.

The roof of the bathhouse was repaired and windows replaced.

Over the years volunteers have established native plants and created educational displays.

The Nature Center is open weekends noon-4 p.m. from April until early October.